


Do Not Open Until 1985

by ami_ven



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: Community: writerverse, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 02:03:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11220993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: Emmett contemplates the pieces of a letter





	Do Not Open Until 1985

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "the future ain't what it used to be" (Yogi Berra)

Emmett wasn’t sure, immediately, why he’d gathered the pieces of the letter he’d ripped up and put them in his pocket. He ran his thumb along the ragged edge of one scrap, thinking.

It was a short letter, he had seen that much. Only long enough to give a brief glimpse of his future, maybe just a single moment in time – maybe his last moment – that Marty wanted him to avoid.

Marty. _He_ was the reason Emmett had kept the letter.

In his future, in Marty’s present, they were friends. Emmett didn’t have that much experience with friends, but Marty seemed to be a good one. Having the young man stay with him while they worked to get him back to his own time had been surprisingly easy, more so than any of Emmett’s other human interactions. While it was clear when their dinner conversations turned to the more technical aspects of time travel that Marty couldn’t always follow him, Marty listened and that was just as important.

Emmett shuffled the letter fragments in his pocket.

Just before he’d left, Marty had hugged him. Hard and long, like maybe he knew he’d never get the chance again. The terrible thing that Marty wanted to warn him about, the moment he’d written in his letter, was very likely Emmett’s own death.

And if he was supposed to die, shouldn’t he let time happen the way it was meant to?

Except, time had already been changed, just by Marty existing in nineteen-fifty-five. The future wasn’t set in stone, it could be changed – maybe it _should_ be changed.

Emmet smiled and tipped a handful of letter pieces onto his desk. One of them landed right-side-up – “ _Your friend, Marty_ ,” he read aloud, then reached for the tape.

THE END


End file.
